This invention pertains to network browsers, with particular application to browsers commonly used on the Internet and World Wide Web.
Web browsers in use today display information to their users in discrete pages that are downloaded from a (usually remote) network server. Each downloaded page usually is cached in a local hard file. Visible links enable the user to request access to a previously displayed page. In order to speed up operations and avoid unnecessary network communications, a browser receiving a request for a previously displayed page, usually retrieves that page either entirely from cache, or partly from cache and partly from the originating network server. Partial retrieval via the network usually occurs automatically (i.e. without explicit user request) when a requested page contains information requiring interaction between the browser and the originating server.
A problem related to this cached handling of page information is that an inexperienced user may be unaware that a page currently being redisplayed contains "old" information (i.e. information retrieved from cache), when the user expects to see only "new" information; expected, for instance, when the information is susceptible of changing somewhat frequently, such as product information in an advertiser's "home" page. Although browsers generally provide a "reload" selector (e.g. a function selectable on the display screen, such as a menu item, icon or button), the inexperienced user requiring new information may not realize that he or she is viewing old information, and therefore fail to explicitly request reloading of the respective page. Also, the inexperienced user may be unaware of the reload function and/or its use. Consequently, information in a re-displayed page could be mis-interpreted by the user, with resulting degradation of productivity of the user per se and their computer equipment.
The present invention seeks to provide a solution to this problem.